U.S. Pat. No. 4,840,941 (941) describes inhibitory effects of certain sulfated polysaccharides on the enveloped retrovirus, human T-cell lymphotrophic virus-III (now known as HIV-1 (human immunodeficiency virus-1)). As disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,288,704, sulfated polysaccharides are also known to be effective against various other enveloped viruses and in particular herpes simplex virus (HSV). The 941 patent, however, discloses that the inhibitory characteristics of sulfated polysaccharides against HIV-1 is quite different from the activities of polysaccharide sulfates against herpes virus. Since different viruses can have fundamentally different properties, a sulfated polysaccharide which is effective against one virus may not be effective against a different virus.
While the binding of human papilloma virus-like particles (VLP's) to HaCaT cells has been shown to be inhibited by heparin and dextran sulfate (Joyce et al. The L1 Major Capsid Protein of Human Papillomavirus Type 11 Recombinant Virus-like Particles Interacts with Hepariin and Cell-surface Glycosaminoglycans oil Human Keratinocytes. The Journal of Biological Chemisty, 1999, Vol 274, No. 9, February 26, pp. 5810–5822), studies with VLP's do not reflect papilloma virus infection and it is not known that sulfated polysaccharides can inhibit papilloma virus infection. Papilloma virus differs from HSV and HIV in that it does not have an envelope and it differs from retroviruses such as HIV since it is a DNA virus and does not rely on the enzyme reverse transcriptase for replication. This difference may explain the resistance of papilloma virus to nonoxynol-9, a commonly used spermicide, which has been shown to inhibit both HIV and HSV (Hermonat, P. L., Daniel, R. W. and Shah, K. V. The spermicide nonoxynol-9 does not inactivate papillomavirus Sex. Transm. Dis. 1992; 19:203–205).
Papilloma viruses infect basal cells of epithelia and induce squamous epithelial and fibroepithelial tumors, e.g., warts (papillomas) and condylomata and can lead to malignant epithelial lesions. (Tzenan Giroglou, et al. Human Papillomavirus Infection Requires Cell Surface Heparan Sulfate Journal of Virology, February 2001, p. 1565–1570). Genital human papilloma virus infections represent one of the most frequent sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and papilloma virus infection of the vaginal mucosa in women has been linked to cervical cancer. Cervical cancer represents the second most frequent cause of cancer-related deaths in women and accounts for more than 200,000 deaths per year world-wide (Pisani, P., Parkin, D. M., and Ferlay, J. Estimates of the worldwide mortality from eighteen major cancers in 1985. Implications for prevention and projections of future burden. International Journal of Cancer 55:891–903. 1993).
To date, very few reagents with microbicidal activity against human papilloma virus (HPV) infections have been described. These include reagents that specifically target HPVs such as monoclonal antibodies with virus neutralizing activity (Christensen, N. D., N. M. Cladel, and C. A. Reed. 1995. Postattachment neutralization of papillomaviruses by monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies. Virology 207:136–142; Christensen, N. D., J. W. Kreider, N. M. Cladel, S. D. Patrick, and P. A. Welsh. 1990. Monoclonal antibody-mediated neutralization of infectious human papillomavirus type 11. J. Virol. 64:5678–5681) and virus non-specific agents such as povidone-iodine (Sokal, D. C. and P. L. Hermonat. 1995. Inactivation of papillomavirus by low concentrations of povidone-iodine. Sex Transm. Dis. 22:22–24.), alkyl sulfates and monocaprin (Howett, M. K., E. B. Neely, N. D. Christensen, B. Wigdahl, F. C. Krebs, D. Malamud, S. D. Patrick, M. D. Pickel, P. A. Welsh, C. A. Reed, M. G. Ward, L. R. Budgeon, and J. W. Kreider. 1999. A broad-spectrum microbicide with virucidal activity against sexually transmitted viruses. Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 43:314–321; Howett, M. K., Wigdahl, B., Malamud, D., Christensen, N. D., Wyrick, P. B., Krebs, F. C., and Catalone, B. J. Alkyl sulfates: a new family of broad spectrum microbicides. XIII International AIDS Conference, 707–712. 2000. Durban, South Africa, Monduzzi Editore). Several reagents that have microbicidal activity against a broad range of STDs have proven to be ineffective against papillomaviruses such as C31G and as mentioned above nonoxynol-9. Some of these agents also induce significant cellular cytotoxicity. An effective treatment or prevention of papilloma virus infection is currently not available.
Cellulose sulfate, a sulfated polysaccharide can be synthesized by various known methods of sulfation of cellulose and may be readily obtained commercially. Sulfated cellulose has been reported to inhibit HIV activities in vitro (Yamamoto et al., Carbohydrate Polymers 14 (1990) 53–63). U.S. Pat. No. 6,063,773 (773) discloses the inhibitory effects of cellulose sulfate on HIV and HSV and further discloses that it can be used to treat or prevent bacterial infections. The 773 patent also discloses cellulose sulfate can reduce the risk of conception.